The rise of renewable energy sources poses life-changing questions for Montana’s coal country. The town of Colstrip has a century’s dependence on coal production. The Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations also share the region’s Powder River Basin coal deposits. But those three communities face different directions as the energy economy reacts to billions of dollars in new federal investments for wind and solar generating projects, mine and pollution cleanup, job training and economic development. Around the world, coal ranks worst among energy sources for producing greenhouse gases that lead to disrupted rain and snow patterns, longer wildfire seasons and other impacts from global warming. Part IV presents a visual tour of Montana’s coal country and the people and places that have grown up around it. These photos were taken during a three-month exploration of Montana’s coal country by Missoulian photographer Ben Allan Smith, Billings Gazette photographer Larry Mayer, and reporter Robert Chaney. Montana sits atop 30% of the nation’s recoverable coal deposits, and has benefited from that resource for a century. The rise of cleaner, cheaper sources of electricity has undermined that tradition. Powder River Basin coal extends through both the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations in southeast Montana. The annual Crow Fair is often nicknamed “The Teepee Capital of the World.” Indian Country has seen shrinking revenue from coal production. The Absaloka coal mine just north of the Crow Indian Reservation ceased production in April 2024. In addition to more than 100 miners being laid off, the collapse of coal revenue cost the Crow tribal government more than 1,000 jobs. Jason Small serves as both a Republican legislator and statewide union leader from his home on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. He says coal’s legacy of providing jobs and security makes it hard for people to consider switching to a renewable energy industry full of unknowns. Billions of dollars in federal programs could fund renewable energy projects like this solar array at Birney’s elementary school on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. The Northern Pacific Railroad dug some of Colstrip’s earliest mines in the 1920s, removing 44 million tons over 34 years. Its coal-burning locomotives were replaced with diesel engines in 1958. The excavations were revegetated but not fully restored. Modern strip mines like the Rosebud complex near Colstrip can produce upward of 12 million tons of coal a year, although it’s currently digging about 6 million tons. Much of that coal gets burned in Colstrip Units 3 and 4, generating a maximum of 1.4 gigawatts of electricity. Units 1 and 2 of the facility were closed in 2020 because they could not produce electricity at a profitable rate. Yellowtail Dam on the Bighorn River generates about 250 megawatts of hydroelectricity. A proposed wind farm and pumped-storage renewable facility has been stalled for years on the Crow Indian Reservation. The Inflation Reduction Act contains hundreds of billions of dollars to both plan renewable energy projects and guarantee loans to see them built. The MTSUN solar farm northwest of Billings generates 80 megawatts on former cropland. Montana’s coal country also has strong wind-energy potential. The Pryor Mountain Wind Farm south of Crow Agency produces 240 megawatts of power. But while renewable energy projects also generate lots of construction jobs, they don’t have the long-term workforce needs of a traditional coal plant. A dragline excavator at the Rosebud complex can remove at least 60 cubic yards of material with each bucketload, which is big enough to snatch a one-car garage. It must remove about 100 feet of overburden to expose the 24-foot-thick coal seam. State legislator and Little Big Horn College professor Sharon Stewart-Peregoy hopes increased federal funding will find its way to job-training programs and increased capacity to absorb opportunities for renewable energy. But she warns that reservation communities lack the technical and professional staff to process many of the federal programs. Federal programs like the EPA’s Solar for All offer $44 million to Montana residents in low-income or economically distressed areas to add solar panels to their homes. The goal is to lower individual power bills by at least 20% while reducing greenhouse gas pollution from fossil-fuel burning. Colstrip Mayor John Williams remains confident that coal will continue to support his community and Montana’s energy needs. He is also promoting Colstrip as a place for retirees to enjoy good hunting and 23 town parks with affordable housing. Heavy equipment sits parked and idle at the Absaloka coal mine, which ceased production in April but has not been officially closed. The mine lost its last utility customer to cheaper methane gas. Forecasts of increased electricity demand from AI data centers might revive coal’s price economics. Coal ash pits near Colstrip are leaking as much as 368 gallons a minute of toxic wastewater into the underground aquifer. Cleanup efforts, supported by both company bonding and federal tax dollars, could provide a decade’s employment to the region. Although about 15,000 people live over the coal deposits surrounding Colstrip and the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations, the dispersed population supports few amenities. Maria Gutierrez says her taco truck serves the only Mexican food for two hours in any direction from Colstrip. Gutierrez moved from California to Colstrip where her son had a job, and decided to open the mobile restaurant after her son’s coworkers raved about the lunches she made for him. A hand-made sign in Crow Agency asks “Crows use to say God’s Country – What happened?” Coal royalties supported at least 1,000 of the Crow tribal government’s 1,300 staff jobs, which were cut in 2017 due to reductions in coal production at the Absaloka mine. Native Americans make up about 7% of Montana’s population, attracting attention from state and federal office-seekers. Republicans have often courted the Crow Tribe, while many Northern Cheyenne consider their reservation a Democratic stronghold. Whether coal survives this economic upheaval or fades away, southeast Montana’s network of transmission lines will keep it an energy hub for the foreseeable future. The question is what source will generate the electricity flowing through those wires. This project was supported by a Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting grant funded by the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute. The series was produced by Robert Chaney in collaboration with Montana Free Press audience director Nathaniel Schoenfelder and deputy editor Eric Dietrich. Tom Lutey contributed research. ABOUT THIS SERIES Part I of this four-part series takes readers across the landscape shared by the Northern Cheyenne, Crow and Colstrip residents who live above the United States’ largest coal reserve, and lays out the challenges and uncertainties entangled in envisioning a new energy economy. Part II catalogs the unprecedented flood of tax dollars flowing into Montana’s coal country, and the reactions of residents presented with these opportunities in an election year. Billions of dollars in tax incentives, loan guarantees and direct aid to families await takers, but many in southeast Montana feel leery of the complicated processes. Part III explores the distinctive cultures and aspirations of the Crow, Colstrip and Northern Cheyenne communities as waves of change buffet traditional coal jobs and introduce new but untested opportunities to join a renewable energy transition. Part IV presents a visual tour of Montana’s coal country and the people and places that have grown up around it. The post The future of coal country: The landscape of energy appeared first on Montana Free Press.